Role of moxibustion in inflammatory responses during treatment of rat ulcerative colitis

AIM: To investigate the efficacy of moxibustion in ulcerative colitis(UC) rats from morphological, immunological and molecular biological perspectives.METHODS: Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to a blank control group(normal rats, n = 6) and a model replication(MR) group(UC rats, n = 26). A UC model was established by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid/dextran sulfate sodium enema. Rats in the MR group were further randomly assigned to a 9-min moxibustion(9M) group(9 moxa-cone, n = 6), 6-min moxibustion(6M) group(6 moxa-cone, n = 6), 3-min moxibustion(3M) group(3 moxa-cone, n = 6), and a waiting list control(WLC) group(no moxibustion treatment, n = 6). Rats in the moxibustion treatment group were treated in 14 sessions over 28 d. Disease activity, local tissue morphology, serum level of interleukin(IL)-8 and IL-10, and expression of Toll-like receptor(TLR)9 aswell as nuclear factor(NF)-κB p65 in colonic tissue were determined by disease activity index(DAI), hematoxylin and eosin staining, electron microscopy, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blotting, respectively.RESULTS: DAI was lowest in the 9M group and highest in the WLC group. The differences in DAI between the moxibustion treatment(3M, 6M, 9M) and no treatment groups were significant for all one-to-one comparisons(0.60 ± 0.54 vs 1.20 ± 0.44, 0.60 ± 0.54 vs 1.80 ± 0.45, 0.60 ± 0.54 vs 3.0 ± 0.45, respectively, P < 0.05). Light and electron microscopy showed that the neatness of the glandular arrangement in colonic mucosal epithelia gradually increased in the WLC, 3M, 6M to 9M groups. IL-8 level successively decreased while IL-10 level increased from the WLC to 3M, 6M and 9M groups. The differences among these groups were significant for all comparisons(105.46 ± 8.75 vs 76.61 ± 3.58, 105.46 ± 8.75 vs 69.78 ± 1.87, 105.46 ± 8.75 vs 67.41 ± 1.84, respectively, P < 0.01 for IL-8; and 30.83 ± 1.29 vs 75.64 ± 1.90, 30.83 ± 1.29 vs 80.90 ± 3.16, 30.83 ± 1.29 vs 83.46 ± 2.37, respectively, P < 0.01 for I